In the cloud, cost is an engineering problem. Finance personnel usually have zero context into which engineering activities are spiking costs when they’re looking at cloud bills. This is why engineers need to be at the center of cloud cost management.
Reasons for Involving Cloud Engineers in Cost Management
DevOps Can Control Cloud Costs Proactively
Traditional IT budgeting and cost management tactics are not relevant after an organization moves to the cloud. The ability to scale in the cloud is infinite. The server bond parameters placed on engineers no longer exist. The implication of this is similar to engineers picking a meal from a menu with no prices.
This can cause problems for an organization. Finance can only react to the decisions made by cloud engineers after looking at the monthly cloud invoice. A more effective course would be to take a proactive approach by involving engineers from the outset.
Cloud engineers should have complete visibility into the cost of cloud infrastructure and engineering decisions. This allows them to report costs proactively to finance and justify any unusual spikes in cost.
The TMI (Too Much Information) Problem
The biggest problem with cloud cost optimization is TMI. Cloud invoices and bills often contain information that may not make sense. Therefore, finance may not be able to figure out what exactly happened in any given month.
Consequently, it is best to have cloud engineers playing a role in cost management. They’re better able to interpret some of the data and build better, cost-efficient systems and fix their code issues.
Avoiding Development Slowdowns
Any conflict between finance and engineering can slow down the pace of development. When organizations embrace cost as an operational metric in the engineering process, it reduces friction and enables faster and more efficient development.